By Million Belay, Common Dreams
A cohort of actors including philanthrocapitalists, aid agencies, governments, academic institutions, and embassies are all working to make this narrative a reality. They talk about transforming African agriculture but what they are doing is creating a market for themselves cleverly couched in a nice sounding language.
By Ffion Storer Jones, Sustainable Food Trust
Who produces our food and what they are paid should be much higher on the agenda of discussions about resilience in food systems, for the sake of society and the environment.
By Chris Smaje, A Small Farm Future
My book A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth is now hurtling on its final trajectory to land on Planet Earth mid-October.
By Rebecca Burgess, Jess Daniels, Fibershed
The Nature of Fashion’s bold and necessary lens for holistic material analysis is not fully applied to the proposed vision for increasing fiber production through the expansion of “biosynthetics” via fermentation of microorganisms, including genetically engineered microorganisms.
By Esha Chhabra, Jess Daniels, Fibershed
I don’t think I would have been as passionate about organic farming and ethical supply chains if I had grown up in Bombay or Delhi, somewhere far away. It’s because I saw all the damage happening first-hand that I’ve been so keen to bring about solutions and change.
By Laurie King, Transition Network
Shetland is a remote, beautiful and windswept place with a strong community spirit. However, despite its thriving local food scene, it is still inextricably tied up in the same fragile economic system, with similar challenges to the rest of the world.
By Richenda Wilson, Oxford Real Farming Conference
Richenda Wilson of the East London community-led food enterprise Growing Communities (GC) describes how dealing with the rollercoaster of COVID-19 – aside from being ridiculously hard work – has inspired thoughts about the future of UK food and farming, about change, closeness and resilience.
By Sustainable Food Trust Staff, Sustainable Food Trust
There are passionate and engaged people across America who are desperately working to keep us within the two-degree Celsius limit. In light of that division, we wanted to talk to farmers across the US to understand how they view climate change and what steps (if any) they were taking to address it.
By Vanessa Kimbell, Resilience.org
Like fresh air and clean water, nourishing bread is a basic right. Central to this is understanding is the impact that sourdough can have on our planet, health, and communities. This starts with the soil the grain is grown in and extends right through to the baking and sharing of our bread.
By Ashley Gripper, Environmental Health News
For more than 150 years, from the rural South to northern cities, Black people have used farming to build self-determined communities and resist oppressive structures that tear them down.
By Kara Stiff, Low-Carbon Life
With all these different uses, my sun oven is full all day, nearly every sunny day. It’s a big part of how we reduced our electricity use by 85%.
By Asher Craig, Going for Gold
It’s been said that “with great power comes great responsibility”. It’s now time for the food sector to demonstrate how the new normal is going to go beyond statements of solidarity.